By Martin Banks - 2nd December 2009
I am a climate sceptic
Hans Labohm
A parliamentary hearing has heard that much of the debate on global warming is "climate alarmism".
Hans Labohm, a Dutch economist, told a hearing on Wednesday that "climate change has always been with us and always will be".
Speaking ahead of the UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen Labohm, a member of the influential IPCC, said, "We are told that temperatures and sea levels are rising and the polar caps are melting.
"That is the bad news. The good news is that none of it is true."
Questioning the science behind climate change, he insisted he was not a "climate change denier" or "anti-Green". "I am a climate sceptic," he said.
British Conservative MEP Roger Helmer, who helped organise the event, said that he had detected a "breakthrough" in the debate about climate change.
He said, "For the first time, the mainstream media are starting to run articles that actually question the validity of the claims about climate change.
"This has not happened before and is an indication of the questionable science behind much of what is said and written about global warming."
Another speaker, professor Fred Singer, of the University of Virginia, said that claims about climate change had been "seriously exaggerated".
"It means the world is pursuing policies on climate which are irrelevant," said Singer, a former climate advisor to former US president Ronald Reagan.
